Is John Calipari correct to be angry over Kentucky’s No. 4 seed?
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Three hours after his team edged Texas A&M in Sunday’s SEC title game, Kentucky coach John Calipari spotted something that caught his attention.
The selection committee seeded the Aggies one line above his Wildcats.
Texas A&M snared a No. 3 seed in the West Region and will meet Horizon League tournament champ Green Bay in the opening round. Kentucky received a No. 4 seed in the loaded East Region and will begin against America East champion Stony Brook.
“Did we not play a basketball game today?” Calipari asked ESPN’s Rece Davis. “I’m happy for A&M. When they got a three, I said, ‘What in the world? Are we going to get a three or a two?’
“I always say this. When you misseed a team, it’s not that team you hurt. It’s the teams they play. That’s who you hurt. Ask Wichita State. There’s no reason they should have played us in the second round (in 2014). They were 31-0. They were the No. 1 team.”
The notion that Kentucky should have been seeded ahead of Texas A&M because it beat the Aggies in Sunday’s SEC title game doesn’t have all that much merit. Texas A&M has two more RPI top 50 wins than Kentucky this season, two fewer sub-100 losses and it won the previous head-to-head meeting between the two teams.
You can argue Kentucky would have the season sweep of Texas A&M if referees hadn’t whistled freshman Isaac Humphries for a dubious late technical foul. You can argue that both teams should have the same seeding considering they both lost to five non-NCAA tournament teams, split the SEC title and have similar records versus the top 100. Regardless not only was this not one of the more egregious mistakes this year’s committee made, it probably doesn’t even crack the top 10.
Where Calipari has every right to complain is not with his team’s seeding but with its draw.
Kentucky landed in the most loaded section of the bracket, which means it could face Big Ten champion Indiana in the round of 32, ACC champion North Carolina in the round of 16 and either top 10 Xavier or top 10 West Virginia in the Elite Eight. Heck, even the Wildcats’ opening-round opponent Stony Brook is a very capable No. 13 seed.
Calipari didn’t touch on that directly, but he did hint that he feels the selection committee purposely sets his teams up to fail by giving them tough draws.
“I can remember being the 1 seed having to play Texas in Houston, being the 1 seed and having to play [Texas] A&M in San Antonio, being the 1 seed and having to play UCLA in California,” Calipari said. “I remember all that. That doesn’t pass my mind. We’ve never had it easy.
“Most years, the higher your seed, the better the chance you have of winning. I’ve said that historically. That’s why you can’t go misseed teams. You’ve got to be serious about it. You’ve got to be thoughtful about it. You can’t have emotions about it — who you like and who you don’t.”
Is that Calipari’s paranoia surfacing? Or is there any truth to the idea his teams have gotten tougher draws than others? Well, let’s examine the recent history.
2015: At the time, this seemed like a dream draw for an undefeated Kentucky team that had earned one. No. 2 seed Kansas was a team the Wildcats throttled in November. No. 3 seed Notre Dame proved to be a very tough out in the Elite Eight, but the Irish had a history of underachieving in March. Other potential opponents Cincinnati, Purdue and West Virginia didn’t shoot well enough to give Kentucky problems.
2014: Brutal draw. Just to make the Final Four, eighth-seeded Kentucky went through undefeated Wichita State, defending national champion Louisville and a loaded Michigan team that had played in the previous year’s title game. Might be the toughest road to the Final Four any team has traversed in recent memory.
2012: Kentucky caught a break getting a vulnerable Duke team as its No. 2 seed, but the rest of this bracket was no joke. Fourth-seeded Indiana was one of two teams to beat the Wildcats that season and either Iowa State or talented but underachieving UConn projected as a tricky second-round matchup.
2011: In a similar plot twist to this season, Kentucky entered as the No. 4 seed in the toughest portion of the draw. The Wildcats survived Princeton’s upset bid, avenged the previous year’s NCAA tournament loss to West Virginia, upset top-seeded Ohio State and edged a strong North Carolina team to advance to the Final Four.
2010: Kentucky wasted an ideal draw because its outside shooting went cold against second-seeded West Virginia in the Elite Eight. The Wildcats’ path before that included underachieving Wake Forest and an overmatched Cornell team.
To recap, that’s two good draws, two tough draws and one that was pretty average. Sounds like the type of treatment most programs get from the selection committee, doesn’t it?
There’s no harm in an entertaining March rant from Calipari once in awhile though. Just know that it’s only partially rooted in fact.
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
